You Know What Makes Great Food Coloring? Bugs

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You Know What Makes Great Food Coloring? Bugs

H. Zell

There are bugs in your food and makeup. Some of them are there on purpose.

One of the best known is cochineal, a red color additive derived from a scale insect called, appropriately, the cochineal scale (Dactylopius coccus). Cochineal is a naturally occurring compound that's been used by humans for hundreds of years, and provides an important source of cash for a lot of rural Central and South American people.

Cochineal goes by different names on food and cosmetic labels: cochineal, carmine, carminic acid, Natural Red 4, or E120. You may be surprised where you find it—it provides color to sausage and artificial crab, as well as pink pastries. Many yogurts and juices use cochineal, and it's common in lipsticks and blushes. It's remarkably stable during cooking, freezing, or in an acid environment, making it perfect for manufacturing.

Unfortunately, an 'OMGBUGZ' reaction from consumers has caused many companies to drop this ingredient. Campari's beautiful reddish-pink color no longer comes from cochineal; neither does the Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino at Starbucks. Beeswax—a compound secreted by glands in the butt-end of a honey bee—is used by humans for all sorts of lip balms and unguents. And yet, when I explain that some foods contain tiny amounts of cochineal, that freaks people out.

They Aren't Beetles, and Other Errors

Scale insects are strange, tiny animals, often with no visible legs or antennae. They kind of look like plant pimples. Cochineal scales live on prickly pear, and cover their wee bodies in a white, fluffy wax. Why are these little insects so red under all that fluff? Carminic acid (their red dye) repels ants. Their pigment evolved as a chemical weapon against predation.

News reports like to dwell upon phrases like "smashed up wings and finely ground legs," but the stuff we call cochineal is a chemical extract from squished female cochineal scales. The insects are crushed and the pigment is extracted. No actual bug “parts” are left in the dye; it's literally bug juice. (Also, the dye-producing female insects don’t have wings.)

And since I'm being pedantic, there is a common misconception that cochineal is made from beetles. Nope. That's a huge error, and I don't just say that because I'm an anal-retentive entomologist who insists that my obscure disciplinary taxonomic rules be recognized by all. (Ok, maybe a little of that. But not only that.)

Beetles and scale insects last shared a common ancestor over 350 million years ago. More than 350 million years ago, the ancestral animals that eventually became frogs and humans split and evolved away from one another too. If I replaced photos of humans with frogs with the excuse "Eh, it's all animals with four appendages anyway," people would notice. And that is why entomologists sigh heavily and roll their eyes when a scale insect is called a beetle.

It's also not true that Cleopatra used cochineal to make lipstick. Cochineal was unknown outside of South America until the 1500's. Cleo might have been using a different scale insect native to the Middle East, though: Oak-Kermes scale insects, Kermes vermilio. Like cochineal, these scale insects were harvested and crushed to extract a red pigment.

Is Cochineal Safe?

Cochineal isn't kosher, and it isn't vegan. But other than that, it's pretty benign. A few individuals are allergic to the compounds produced by these insects, and clear labeling is now required. The FDA reached this conclusion in 2009 when it ruled that all products containing cochineal need to say so, rather than just using the vague phrase “natural colors.” From the FDA ruling:

“we identified three adverse events over an approximately 10-year period that involved products containing carmine or cochineal extract in which those color additives did not or probably did not appear on the ingredient list….We applied a reporting rate of 1 percent to this figure to obtain our estimate of 31 adverse events per year.”

Let me restate that: the FDA *estimated* the scope of the problem based on three allergic reactions in 10 years. Cochineal has proved non-toxic in lab tests. For the majority of the population, cochineal is a safe and naturally derived food coloring.

There Are Bugs In Your Food. Deal With It.

There are lots of actual bug parts in your food, and the FDA knows and approves of it. Insects happen. It’s part of living on Earth, and we just can’t get things completely sterile, no matter how much we try.

Here is a giant list of all the bugs in your food allowed by the FDA. Americans live in a world of highly processed foods and products. I happily eat the allowed "up to 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams" of chocolate that is allowed as manufacturing contaminants. Because, CHOCOLATE, y'all.

Nearly all the insect contaminants allowed in your food (coffee: 10 percent infestation of beans allowed) are considered "aesthetic" defects. It's not unsafe, it just freaks people out. Are convenience, perfection, and sterility really the most important things to think about when choosing foods? What about how it was grown, or how many resources are used to package and ship it? What about the welfare of the people who produced and manufactured it?

Check your labels, but maybe let go of the worry about a tiny amount of bug-derived compounds in your food. I mean, come on. You have mites on your face.

Want to know more?

A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire. A great book about the brutal conquest of the Americas and cochineal production.

You can see a travel diary of how the insects are reared, collected, and then turned into dye in Mexico at the Perfect Red site.